The Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in United States history and one of the largest, best-organized and well-armed uprisings since the American Civil War, began. For five days, in Logan County, West Virginia, some 10,000-armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers, called the Logan Defenders, who were backed by coal mine operators during an attempt by the miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields.